Encrypted APFS SDCard doesn't automount in internal reader

[dfgddikf]

I have a 2021 Macbook Pro 14 (macOS Sonoma 14.3.1) which doesn't automount an encrypted APFS SD Card when I insert it into the internal card reader. It works when I use an external card reader with the same card.

When I try it in the internal reader, I can read the card when I manually mount it in the disk utility.

Does anyone here have an idea how I can get it to automount in the internal reader?

It suddenly stopped automounting last year. Maybe after the upgrade to Sonoma.

Thanks a lot.

 

[solouki]

Hi dfgddikf,

I have a similar, but not precisely identical, problem with APFS SD cards. My cards are not encrypted APFS, however.

When I plug a new (new to the MBP's internal SD Card Reader, but one that had previously been mounted in an external SD Card Reader) APFS SDXC card into the internal card reader, it wouldn't mount. Closely watching, the "Allow" popup window pops up for less than a 1/10 second and then vanishes -- the SD card doesn't mount, and it doesn't show up in Disk Utility.app. I actually recorded videos (iPhone and screen recordings) showing this behavior, and sent them to Apple as a bug report. I'll probably hear back from Apple sometime in 2025.

Further investigating, I found that after rebooting the machine the "Allow" popup would then remain open so I could click on it. This made me suspect that the root cause was an additional User logged into the computer, and this is indeed the problem. With one User logged in, the "Allow" popup stays and allows clicking, but with two Users logged in, the "Allow" popup disappears immediately and the card cannot be mounted internally unless it has already been "Allowed" earlier. This "feature" is inconsistent and thus cannot constitute a "security feature" for the internal Card Reader -- we'll see what, if anything, Apple has to say about it.

Not the same problem as yours, but similar, and hopefully helpful.

Solouki

 

[dfgddikf]

Thanks, it could have been related if I had a second user, but I'm the only one on this machine.

I also deleted the saved keys from keychain but this didn't help either.